Self-defence schools: the good and the bad

Introduction
My training didn't start out as a search for the best form of self defence. I started martial arts purely for fun, but as time has passed I have seen others looking around wondering what they should train in. Beginners are met with an overwhelming number of martial arts claiming to be able to teach literally everything from near-invulnerability to psychic chi-blasts. These claims are usually dismissed even by someone with no understanding of martial arts training, but the rest of the pack still number in the thousands of styles, organisations and independent clubs within easy reach of the average would-be beginner. This article is for those chasing one of the most elusive creatures on the planet: effective self defence training. I hope that this helps show the difference between a good club and a bad club if this is your focus.

Where I'm coming from
I started out my martial arts career in Judo when I was 11. We had fun while trying to throw each other to the floor and follow down for a pin or a submission. At the time I doubt any of us thought of this as sparring, probably more as a game. As part of the class we would do self defence training from time to time, and undoubtedly the sparring (or randori in Japanese) helped us to understand the ways in which people actually fall, how to break balance against a resisting opponent and how best to survive someone attacking for real. However, there seem to be fundamental differences between how people behave in a Judo lesson than in a real engagement, and I came to realise that the few self defence classes that we had were merely a glimpse into the world of self defence training. I decided to find myself a second art, one which would complement my Judo effectively while increasing my ability to look after myself.

Since I had already learned throwing, an art that included that made a lot of sense to me. As such I went and tried out a local Jujutsu school. I had a lot of fun learning some self defence applications for the throws I had learnt in Judo, but I realised that there was still something missing. This class trained the self defence techniques in a fairly static manner then moved on to sparring (again called randori, but with completely different rules than I was used to from Judo). This sparring was light contact only, with certain defined scoring areas and would switch to grappling if anyone grabbed hold of the opponent in any way: no more strikes allowed. Looking back, I think I actually learned less about self defence by training in this manner than I thought I was at the time simply because the rules made it very unrealistic.

When I moved on to university, however, I found a method of training that works extremely well for me, one which I have stuck with ever since: non-compliant self defence drills. The idea behind this method is to give your partner an increasingly difficult time within your training class rather than sparring. As such, you can start out by drilling the techniques against a compliant partner, then start stepping up the difficulty. Maybe this time the partner will throw repeated punches rather than just the simple one used when learning the basic technique. Maybe this time he'll step back as you step in, leaving you in a very uncomfortable fighting range for a grappler unless you move quick. Maybe this time he'll grab back and try to keep you away. There's certainly an element of competition involved in this sort of training, but the ultimate idea is simply to push your opponent outside the comfort zone to find out if the techniques work when subjected to this sort of testing.

The advantage that this method has is that it gradually steps up the difficulty and allows training of increasingly more difficult situations. I have no doubt that for one-on-one situations the full-contact sparring seen in MMA schools is some of the best possible training, but when you include things like multiple attackers, grabs (including chokes, headlocks, bear hugs), weapons, defending another person, etc, I believe that sparring becomes very less appropriate while defence drills with resistance method work extremely well. I have been bashed for this opinion by full contact sparring advocates in the past, but I can live with that. They have their training method, I have mine. For the rest of the article I will be addressing situational self defence training rather than sparring. There will be other articles for the good and bad sparring schools, I'm sure, it's just not something that interests me as much as this subject.

Good and bad
I believe that the good end of the scale for self defence training has been explained above. Unfortunately the martial arts world is rarely simple. You can't, as a beginner at least, know whether one school teaching self defence is any better than another until you have some experience under your belt (so to speak), and many schools take advantage of this by claiming benefits that simply don't exist.

Recently I have had a number of work-related problems getting my my usual training venue, and as such have been training in something a little closer to home. This club is part of a global art which makes some fairly hefty claims about how good they are at self defence, yet I see little evidence of this ability in their training methods at the class in question, in their students or in the demonstration videos readily available on YouTube. There are videos of their black belt gradings available for anyone to watch, and the quality of their self defence is scary. Not in a good way either, it's scary that these techniques are the best that these masters of their art know (ok, a black belt is commonly referred to as a beginner who knows the basics quite well, but I'm still appalled that anyone would be given a black belt for these demonstrations).

To try and show some of the differences to any beginners reading this article, here's a simple release technique from a same-side wrist grab. This is a basic technique that you should learn to deal with in any art that looks at self defence. In arts like Judo and MMA you will likely learn it incidentally as part of standard sparring grip defence, in other arts like Jujutsu and Aikido you will practice specific techniques against this grab. The art that I mentioned above with the scary black belts has effectively one technique against this: kick them then snatch your hand free.

To give you an idea of a good art's techniques against such an attack, you have a number of options. First and foremost you assess the situation to see what the free hand is doing. Is there a weapon? Is there a punch coming. If there's a weapon, the grab is now almost incidental, it's all about defending against the next attack. If it's an empty hand but still a punch, you can step in and block the punch or step around the opponent to evade (obviously still keeping a sufficient guard to protect yourself though). You can then choose to escape, if you wish, by rotating your palm upward and stepping back while making a move as though you were running your fingers through your hair (this accesses the weakest part of their grip and applies a large portion of your body weight to it), leaving you outside striking range and able to run if you wish. If you don't want to go backwards you can rotate around the opponent, aiming to strike his elbow with your own as you turn through, releasing the grip (using body weight again) and ending up behind him with the ability to run or counter-attack as you see fit. You can instead extend their arm and step around into a shoulder lock. You can control their hand or arm using various techniques which attack the joints. You can step in and throw them to the floor.

I could go on, but this gives you an idea of the true depth that a real self defence art goes into when dealing with even the most simple of techniques. Naturally these aren't all taught at once to beginners: this would be an information overload that would render all the training useless. Instead one or two techniques will be properly learnt before trying out a few more. Perhaps two students starting at the same time might see five such techniques in their first six months, each of them learning two or three that fit their personal style well. This is more than sufficient because of how these techniques are trained.

Technique or attitude?
The training method as much as anything will define the quality of the techniques. In terms of refinement, the techniques I outlined for a good art are better than the one I outlined for the scary art, but that technique would itself be refined and improved with the right training mindset. Again, let me give two examples of training the same defence situation that define the difference between good and bad training.

In the first class the technique is trained by allowing the attacker to grab on to the same side wrist. The defender then does their technique while the attacker does nothing. Success! The defender gets free, does their counter attack and rejoices that they've learned such an easy defence against a common attack.

The second class starts the same way. They run through the technique a couple of times to get a feel for it, then they start making it harder for the defender. The attacker will grab hold and try to drag them away, or will try to hit them with the free hand. Eventually it all starts looking quite rough, but that's where the real learning happens. A technique learned in isolation with no resistance or pressure testing is worse than useless: it gives you confidence where none is necessarily warranted.

Conclusions
In short, the differences between a good school and a bad are as follows:

• In a good school you will learn situations and will have a number of techniques for each situation, while a bad school will teach you one technique per situation regardless of the necessity for more
• A good school will push you outside your comfort zone one way or another. A bad school will give you a great deal of encouragement when you have achieved remarkably little
• A good school will leave you exhausted. Pressure testing your techniques is hard work: you will be physically exhausted and mentally worn out from the stress. A bad school might leave you physically exhausted if they do a lot of exercise, but if you haven't felt stressed, worried and possibly even afraid, then you're not getting what you need from the training

So, some counter intuitive questions that might help determine if the school is right for you:

• Is it hard to learn? Wrong answer: no; right answer: it's very hard work, it's not for everyone, but if you persevere then you will learn it eventually
• Do I need to grade? Wrong answer: yes, you need to grade to progress; right answer: no, if you choose not to grade you will still learn a lot
• Will it hurt? Wrong answer: no, we take every precaution not to let you get hurt; right answer: yes, from time to time accidents happen when you train hard. However, we have a good safety record and qualified first aiders are present at all times

If you are looking for effective self defence rather than mere self confidence, you have to expect to work very hard, to occasionally go home with cuts and bruises (though not too severe, of course!) and to occasionally be extremely stressed out and frustrated by your training. It's not an easy ability to learn, and in fact it may not be worthwhile. An instructor of mine at university was well known for claiming that learning Jujutsu to a high standard would probably end up being more expensive and painful than a couple of muggings if you summed up both experiences, but self defence is about more than just avoiding losing money to a mugger. It's a legitimate boost to confidence; it's a way to exercise while learning something useful, and it may save you from something worse than merely losing money one day. In short, it's a way of life like any other martial art, but it transcends styles and gives you a framework into which you can add anything from any arts that you like as long as you can answer the question “Can I really use this?” with a “Yes!”

Have fun with self defence training, but please watch out for purveyors of false confidence.  

Ooooh, this description of training at university is really tempting me to go to Ju jitsu at said university - sounds awesome.

Cheers Aegis

Name one drill that is 100% non-compliant and 100% realistic.

Wait, you just said "almost entirely non-compliant". So you admit it's compliant. It's less compliant that just having the opponent stand there, but it's still compliant. My point is, with all these cliches about "non compliant" and "pressure test", the fact is, it's still falling short of what you will experience in a true self defense situation. I totally agree it's the best way to train, but don't kid yourself or be imprecise: it's still compliant, and it is very unrealistic - obviously, I don't have to list why to you as you're aware of all those crucial differences.

[quote=Aegis;34070038] I wouldn't say that this breeds false confidence either. My thought is that this type of training teaches how difficult self defence can really be, and as such it encourages people to find other ways to deal with a situation at all costs. [QUOTE/]

Why wouldn't you say that? You're saying no one ever could get a bit over confident in your training method, then get his or her ass kicked because of the differences between your toughy drilling and a real attack? Anyone can get overconfident in what they do, no matter how good the training is. Always someone or some method that has different +s and -s.


Again these weasle words: "a fair bit of intensity". Yes, more intense, probably, than the "compliant" drills, but not full intenstity- or people just get injured. Total complaince has its place. In BJJ they do it all the time. If you don't start with compliance, you will not be sharp, you won't know what ideal to aim for during the real melee. Only after drilling compliantly over and over and over again, do you jump to what you advocate.

My problem with what you suggest to beginners is that it is totally dismissing the benefits of more compliant drilling (I say more because your drilling is still compliant, just to a lesser degree). You have to have both, and it's tempting to jump to the fun stuff, but it's bad because you jump into something without maintaing proper technique or form because you never had a chance to really "get it". Royce Gracie advocates you train very SLOW, get it right, precise... takes years and years and years.

Ha-ha! The over-arching strategy to escape is not "to escape". That's like saying my strategy to win is to win. If you practice low side kicks on a totally compliant tree, that will help you in your self defense. You'll have good kicks- how is that bad? Yes, better to practice against an opponent, but on the other hand, you can't kick his knee as hard as you can the tree. Most good fighters actually only have one technique. That's right: one technique. Everything else is just a way to get to it!

Fine, but you are talking to beginners in your article. What is wrong with giving them one or two techniques against a hand grab? Maybe the point is to get them first used to being grabbed, moving without losing balance, giving them some success and confidence so they can tackle more difficult problems in 6 mos time. I just don't see the big deal with a limited structured curriculum that starts with a few basic techniques that you can build upon.

You CAN... it's just breaking the law.

And I believe if you have strong fundementals in a legit art, it will see you through naturally to increase your chances to survive no matter the circumstances.

Nothing is 100% realistic but when it comes to compliance I think you can be pretty much 100% uncooperative. I mean, the end goal of a training exercise is for each partner to get better and you impose rules for safety or to focus on something, but within that framework you can resist as much as you like.

You know, of man--this hits the nail on the head for me and my whole journey as a martial artist! I trained at a TKD school for three years before joining the Marine Corps. I was a red belt. I figured I had a fairly decent idea of what self defense was all about.

Well, while I was in bootcamp the platoon I was in was learning hand to hand combat techniques. When we were learning how to deal with a strangle hold--my partner actually attacked me, wrapping his hands around my throat and choked me--hard. I was shocked! I remember seeing the look on that guy's face; he looked like he was very serious! I'm thinking 'crap I can't breath--I can't breath! See, that's the thing. If you don't really know what it's like to be attacked--then how do you know how you're going to react, let alone if what you're being taught is going to really work? These guys wanted us to attack each other with verociousity and violence--with some control, however. Nobody wanted any recruits to get injured. But, they wanted the Marine recruits to understand to the best of their ability just what real combat is like (we all know, though, it's never like really being there). This was indeed a great and insightful article with straight forward, need-to-know stuff. And, I'm grateful for having found it. Thank you.

It's always good to look at the MA training from a throwing art (SC, Judo, wrestling) point of view. In the throwing art, not only you have to learn different throws, you also have to learn counters against each throws. You then learn counters against those counters. Soon you will get into combo training (use 1 move to set up another move). If we can train our striking art this way then beginners will have a clear understanding about their striking art.

Good article! Definately something to read through for those less experienced who are looking for a class/gym to train at.

I have been to a mix of good and bad, and shades inbetween. Sometimes the best class available is not all of the 'good' and includes a shades of the 'bad', unless you are willing to travel alot further!

One common occurance I have noticed is a 'club' will have several teachers and with classes varying from the good to the not so good, and although this shouldn't be the case it is something to be aware of when you go to different classes of the same club.

The best form of self-defence is not to be in a situation where you need it in the first place. In other words, it's not so much about 'fighting', as not needing to fight in the first place. If, however, you find yourself in a dangerous situation, then get the **** out of it fast, to a place of greater safety. Should you need to use some kind of physical response in order to extricate yourself from that situation, then use the KISS principle: Keep It Simple Stupid! Because most of your fine motor skills required to make some complicated little wrist grab escape (not that I've ever seen a bloke attack another bloke in that manner anyway!), will suddenly be absent.

For me, effective self defence / self protection is about avoiding conflict, if at all possible. And all you gung ho 25 year olds out there who think otherwise, stop and ask yourself how your thinking might change if you were a suffering from a slipped disc, or other physical impairment, or you were a small 57 year old woman (for example), at the time of the attack. If you have to fight back, especially in the most dangerous of situations, strike for the eyes, groin, knees and throat. If what you try to do ain't do-able by an average person, having had the most limited amount of training, and in the most stressful of situations imaginable, then it shouldn't even be attempted!

Ask your 250 lb opponent to chagre in full speed and tries to

- knock your head off, try to see if you can stop him by your front or side kick on his chest (without letting him to push you back).
- shoot at your leg/legs, try to pull him down in front of you (before he gets your leg/legs).

Repeat these drills 100 times daily and keep your record for your success/failure ratio.

That isn't 100% realistic, you are restricting yourself to only two responses.

When somebody runs toward you in maximum speed, you truly don't know what he is going to do to you. He may want to:

- jab at your face,
- upper cut at your chin,
- hook punch at the back of your head,
- hammer fist on top of your head,
- back fist at your face,
- bear hug on your waist,
- head look on your head,
- grab your single or double of your legs,
- ...

It's more than just 1 or 2 responses. If you can stop your opponent before he gets too close to you, you already have strong "defense" skill - protect your territory.

One simple test can be to draw a circle. You stand in that circle. Your opponent tries to enter that circle and you try to prevent him from doing that. Let your opponent to try 100 times and see how many times out of those 100 tries that your opponent can step into your circle. Keep you successful-failure rate and see if that ration can be improved through time.

Kudos! Bravo! It is what I have been trying to explain in almost the same manner to flash and pizaz martial artists throughout the decades.

Ok, you need 2 buddies and bag of cereal boxes filled with sand, mouth guards and MMA gloves will work for protection and you'll be training in a parking lot at night. The goal is simple get into your car while dealing with "attacker a" trying to intimidate and distract you from "attacker b" oh and there could be an attacker "c" & "d" shock knives or padded sticks & no one is holding back. Stops when you get into your car & exit the parking lot or go down and can't defend yourself...

Drills should be based on specific scenario simulating real world conditions as much as possible, its not 100% more like 99% but thats as good as it gets.

I agree on the matter of Keeping it simple and on the importance of avoidance a lot of fights can be avoided but people let ego or "I'm a fighter" mentality get in the way. As far as fine motor skills disappearing, not so much. Fine motor skills might break down but if you train under life conditions and add stress to the mix it can actually desensitize the individual to the adrinoline dump and improve how they handle it.

Thats the best advise for SD techniques yet...

Oh please.

Once again, we've degenerated into the internet's favourite passtime - fantasy lives.

There is no such thing as a 100% realistic drill - and nor should there be.

If you want 100% realism - go pick fights and generally act like an .........
And then live with the consequences, good and bad.

Training for realism requires:
a) Experience of the real world - which plainly many people just don't have. If you don't have it, don't pretend, be honest about it and stop making rash assumptions.
b) An understanding of how real people perform under pressure, how far regular training will take them, and what conditioning is required to bridge the gap.
c) A goal and a requirement for each exercise you are doing i.e. where the participants are now, and where they'll be at the end of the scenario. That includes pre-fight, in-fight, post-fight and all the tactics, concepts and strategies that might be employed.
d) Everything is being done to survive that first encounter. To survive that feeling of helplessness and denial. To overcome the voices inside screaming at you to be somewhere else. To live through the knee-jerk responses that are flooding your mind.

Anything else is just boys playing at being tough. A quick trawl around youtube and you'll find all sorts of BS being touted as reality training. Most of it with NO training motive whatsoever.

Dear Pugil,
Thank you for this blog.While other people are speculating what fiendish techniques could be used against an angry gentleman you have focused on one mayor aspect of Martial arts training.In a word the correct strategies to use depending in the given situation.Common sense dictates that you only need to resort to violence when /if you do not have an alternative.Doing /rehearsing movements in a dojo with a training partner is useful , but not quite the same as confrontation outside in the street etc.